Enemies save against my alchemist bombs 90% of the time. Advice?

[bluetrazyn]

Picked alchemist specifically because I wanted to throw alchemist bombs without friendly fire. I am level 6, have 16 intelligence, and I have the bomb feat which adds +2 to DC. Therefore, the DC should be 18 (10+ half my alchemist lvl + 3 from int + 2 from the feat). Is that not enough? Enemies make their reflex save SO frequently.

Is it because the default bomb does fire dmg and most enemies are resistant to it?

Is it because I've just happened to only encounter enemies with proficiency in reflex after 12-15 hours?

Skill issue?

Instead of doing 3D6+3 fire damage I'm usually doing 0-3. It sucks. Please help.

[ProestUnicorn]

There are bazzilion guides on youtube, You can for sure find a build that You want there.

[Janthis]

Enemies in this game will save against everything, that's why spellcasters at low levels aren't great either, you cast one spell which everyone resists/saves against, then you gotta rest before you use it again. Better to just have a sword or bow. You either take 27 separate feats to make your spells effective or lower the difficulty. Same for bombs.

[ProestUnicorn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8W2d00kAw here, this guy makes good builds and it is fairly recent, there are no classes that cannot be made to work even in the early game. Especially not on mid/lower difficulties.

[HTakara]

CRPGBro is probably the most knowledgeable Youtuber on the game, so his advice is helpful.

[Deo]

Originally posted by bluetrazyn:

Instead of doing 3D6+3 fire damage I'm usually doing 0-3. It sucks. Please help.

Alchemist with his bombs faces the same wall that any blaster spellcaster facing before Mythic 1. Demons have resist Acid 10, Cold 10, Fire 10, Immunity to Electricity. So any bombs you pick - acid, cold, electric, or normal fire - will do no damage. Unlucky.

Ascendant Element mythic ability solves that problem, but the DC of a bomb - that's another story.
Pathfinder system does not like non-minmaxed attributes, and 16 INT is pathetically low. In character creation you should put 19, and increase it to 20 by level 4.

[hilburnashua]

Originally posted by bluetrazyn:

Picked alchemist specifically because I wanted to throw alchemist bombs without friendly fire. I am level 6, have 16 intelligence, and I have the bomb feat which adds +2 to DC. Therefore, the DC should be 18 (10+ half my alchemist lvl + 3 from int + 2 from the feat). Is that not enough? Enemies make their reflex save SO frequently.

Is it because the default bomb does fire dmg and most enemies are resistant to it?

Is it because I've just happened to only encounter enemies with proficiency in reflex after 12-15 hours?

Skill issue?

Instead of doing 3D6+3 fire damage I'm usually doing 0-3. It sucks. Please help.

OP, when you throw a standard damage bomb (fire,acid)at an opponent, is that opponent getting a save?

If so, I think I know what the problem is. If you are clicking the bomb icon from the hotbar and then throwing it you are targeting the space, not the opponent. So all the people in the circle are getting a save to take half your splash damage (1hp per die of damage + int bonus).

If you right click the bomb icon that will set the AI to use the bombs as targeted weapons. Then click on the opponent you want the alchemist to throw the bomb at, it will throw the bomb at the opponent. I don't know why Owlcat has it set up like this but it is very, very annoying.

[bluetrazyn]

updating the thread for anyone else who is having the same issue. Bombs are not AOE spells like fireball, they are a targeted weapon with a blast radius. To do max damage, you need to target a specific creature with the bombs, you cant throw them anywhere you want for max damage rolls. Also, on normal difficulty you don't need to min-max your bomb DC, but having higher INT and dex really helps. Also, speedrun your way to fast bombs and holy bombs. This game has many evil creatures, the holy bombs will net a ton of value.

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Johnny_B_80:

Enemies in this game will save against everything, that's why spellcasters at low levels aren't great either, you cast one spell which everyone resists/saves against, then you gotta rest before you use it again. Better to just have a sword or bow. You either take 27 separate feats to make your spells effective or lower the difficulty. Same for bombs.

That’s not even the answer to his question 😑

[hilburnashua]

Originally posted by bluetrazyn:

updating the thread for anyone else who is having the same issue. Bombs are not AOE spells like fireball, they are a targeted weapon with a blast radius. To do max damage, you need to target a specific creature with the bombs, you cant throw them anywhere you want for max damage rolls. Also, on normal difficulty you don't need to min-max your bomb DC, but having higher INT and dex really helps. Also, speedrun your way to fast bombs and holy bombs. This game has many evil creatures, the holy bombs will net a ton of value.

Cursed bomb is pretty good too, but it's usually best to just throw one unless you really want to make sure they fail that save. Force is fantastic for anything incorporeal but there is a ring that lets you deal with that.